Resin inlay pocket depth?

Hi,

just wondering if any one has any thoughts on what the minimum depth for a carving that will be inlayed with epoxy resin.

i’m guessing that it might depend on the width but i want to minimise the carve time so any thoughts would be appreciated.

many thanks
Antoinette

I would be concerned with max depth not minimum depth.

The deeper the amount of epoxy in the carve, the longer it takes to cure. very shallow means less cure time and depending on the type of resin, less resin means harder cure

Shallow would also mean less bubbles since most of them would be close enough to the surface to be easily popped with heat. Lower bubbles may not necessarily make it all the way up to the surface in time to be popped before the resin starts to set.

a lot of what i have seen is full thickness fills so

I hadn’t thought about max depth being an issue… or the benefits of a shallower fill on the curing time or bubbles etc.

so that’s really useful. thank you both.

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also just paint the carved out parts with acrylic paint, don’t worry about tinting the resin prior to filling…I painted this one then filled with clear resin, then took the torch to the resin to remove bubbles.

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The paint trick is magic!

As for the resin curing at different thicknesses, anything under 1/8” and it will be fine. There are resins specifically designed for extremely thick pours, but you won’t need that for these types of inlays.

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I usually go 1/16 to 1/8 deep and add colour to the resin itself. Seems to work well and looks great when it’s sanded flush and sealed!

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Do people actually cut on these boards Lance? I would think the epoxy would get all cut up.

BTW I used to live in Pitt Meadows and taught high school at Thomas Haney!

wow small world Peter, lol. I thought I was honestly the only person out in my neck of the woods with an Xcarve. we’ve lived out here for 5 years now. I wouldn’t trade living out here for anything…well maybe for a house in the Caribbean, with high speed internet and reliable electrical grid

they don’t seem to scuff hardly at all. I add a little more hardener than normal, it seems to keep them scuff free for the most part.

Ya, 7 1/2 years ago we moved out of province so no longer in your neck of the woods. We often talk about retiring out that way but it’s so bleeping expensive there.